Chrollo Lucilfer Quotes

It looks like a pose. Chained in the back of a car beside the last Kurta, who will shortly demand to know whether he led the massacre, a captured leader has every reason to perform calm, and a villain's bravado is the cheapest effect in the genre. The chapter anticipates the objection and brings a witness. Melody, listening to his heartbeat on pp. 10 and 11, reports that it is normal, with no dissonance and no fear: the sound, she says, of full acceptance of death. So the line is an accurate self-report, which is worse for Kurapika than a bluff. A frightened hostage can be bargained with. A hostage who files his own execution under coffee breaks has removed the lever revenge depends on, which is making the guilty feel something. Chrollo's opening question, whether he needs to repeat himself, says he has made the point before and expects to be believed. The calm is not what keeps him alive, though. The Troupe still holds Gon and Killua, and on p. 14 Kurapika admits to himself that he cannot kill him.

Leorio, trying to keep Kurapika from losing control in the car, says they do not have an edge yet. Chrollo takes the word personally. The captive's correction sounds like a gambler protecting his hand, and Melody's reading of his heartbeat says it is sincere. Then she adds the complication on p. 11: he believes he is worthless as a hostage, but it is also true that he is their leader. Both are facts, and the plan for the rest of the night lives in the gap between them. What the line commits Chrollo to is a disposability he has chosen for himself, and it describes the organization as much as the man. A leader who ranks himself below the group has built something that expects to outlive him. It does not follow that the others will accept the ranking, and he cannot make that decision for them from the back seat.